Liquid dispensing vessels having pour spouts intended to provide mess-free dispensing of viscous liquids, such as laundry detergents, are well known in the art. These have typically been embodied on closures which are used to transfer liquid from a bulk liquid container to a washing machine. They have also been embodied directly on bulk liquid containers.
In general, these prior art structures facilitate a single mode of dispensing in the form of a product stream of substantially constant cross-section. While these prior art solutions function reasonably well for rapid transfer of large quantities of liquid into an appliance, such as a washing machine, laundry detergent formulations are frequently used as a pretreating agent and applied directly onto discrete portions of an article of clothing before the clothing is deposited into the washing machine. Bulk liquid dispensing structures of the prior art intended to provide rapid substantially mess-free transfer of large quantities of liquid do not readily lend themselves toward such spot treating applications.